This is a day where nearly every team that isn’t in the playoffs is sending out mass e-mails, thanking their fans and talking about their grand plans to build a winning ballclub. There’s usually nothing newsworthy in any of them, but I wasn’t the only one who found a portion of this e-mail from Mariners CEO Howard Lincoln and general manager Jack Zduriencik rather interesting.
Courtesy of Larry Stone of the Seattle Times, see if you can spot who is missing in part of Zduriencik’s message.
That’s right, no mention of Josh Lueke. For the uninitiated, the Mariners insisted they knew nothing about the pitcher’s criminal past when he was acquired in the Cliff Lee trade, though former pitching coach Rick Adair says otherwise.
I’m probably not out of line to say that any organization that trades a player like Cliff Lee would probably attempt to hype up their newest acquisitions by default, but it’s fairly obvious they are trying to avoid any and all controversy here. For what’s it’s worth, Stone is fairly certain that the omission is “not inadvertent,” and goes as far to wonder whether Lueke is actually in the organization’s long-term plans.
Granted, maybe Lueke doesn’t fit the definition of a “top prospect” by virtue of being a reliever, but he did post a 1.86 ERA and 94/14 K/BB ratio over 63 innings between the Rangers and Mariners organizations this season. Some have even mentioned him as a future closer. The 25-year-old right-hander pitched 12 games with Triple-A Tacoma to end the season, so they’ll have to make up their minds pretty soon.
